IRI and GuestMetrics Form Alliance

IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm, and GuestMetrics, an on-premise data provider, announced Tuesday that they have formed an alliance that will integrate the research of both entities.

The alliance will provide IRI clients with in-depth information about on-premise consumer purchases via GuestMetrics that will be placed against the context of IRI’s off-premise data. The data integration could give marketers a better understanding of how off-premise consumer behavior influences on-premise purchases.

“Our alliance and investment in GuestMetrics furthers the IRI strategy of helping manufacturers and retailers gain new levels of knowledge about how people research, shop and consume food and beverage products everywhere — from bars to restaurants, to homes,” Piyush Chaudhari, president of the Americas, IRI, said in a release.

The alliance follows IRI’s announcement in May that it has partnered with SPINS, a supplier of consumer insights and analytics in the natural, organic and special products channel. The SPINS partnership was expanded in January, further integrating IRI’s point-of-sale figures to create a conventional retail measurement platform.

The full release is below:

CHICAGO — RI, the global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter healthcare companies, announced today a new, exclusive alliance with GuestMetrics, well known for capturing point-of-sale (POS) data virtually anywhere people consume a product on premise, particularly in the bar, restaurant, food service and hospitality sectors. IRI is also taking an equity position in the company.

“Our alliance and investment in GuestMetrics furthers the IRI strategy of helping manufacturers and retailers gain new levels of knowledge about how people research, shop and consume food and beverage products everywhere—from bars to restaurants, to homes,” says Piyush Chaudhari, president of the Americas, IRI. “We believe integrating GuestMetrics’ data in the restaurant and food service space with IRI data will enable CPG decision makers to drive growth of their brands everywhere they are sold.”

Through this alliance, IRI clients will have the opportunity to access data on consumer purchases made on premise; e.g., food purchased and consumed at a restaurant. This data will be integrated with the existing IRI off-premise purchase information for food and beverage products purchased at grocery stores, mass merchandisers and other retailers, and consumed at home. Marketers can study the impact of on-premise sales on off-premise purchase behavior, and more effectively coordinate activities to maximize the opportunities within both channels.

The GuestMetrics alliance and investment joins several recent IRI initiatives to integrate a wider range of shopper data. In February, IRI announced it is collaborating with Technomic to produce Restaurant to Retail (R2R) Insights, a new joint service offering that integrates shopper habits at retail with spending patterns at major chain restaurants.

“Manufacturers are aggressively moving their brands on premise, creating new, exciting opportunities to spark off-premise sales and market share lift,” said Bill Pecoriello, chief executive officer, GuestMetrics. “We hope that together with IRI, our data combined will help give all customers better insights so they can maximize their understanding of their shoppers as they roll out new products.”

About GuestMetrics LLC

GuestMetrics, LLC is revolutionizing how the hospitality industry operates. Despite the dawn of the Digital Age having begun more than three decades ago, the hospitality industry essentially functions the same way it did centuries before. GuestMetrics has cracked the code by collecting billions of dollars in sales from tens of thousands of restaurants and bars, and turning billions of raw transactions into intelligible data that is fundamentally transforming the business operations of everyone from the independently-owned bar/restaurant on the corner, to multi-national chains, to the food & beverage companies that supply them.

IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing.